1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of the equestrian activities, particularly to a saddle and means for riding an equine and, more particularly the invention refers to means for adjusting a saddle in order that the same may be used in equines having different back sizes or in the same equine that, by any circumstance, the size of the back or withers thereof have increased or decreased, wherein a saddle according to the invention may be adjusted to any new size as well as parts thereof may be installed and removed in an easy and quick manner without the need of expertise.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It well known that a saddle, particularly those employed in equestrian activities are composed of a complex structure combining leather working and engineering to provide comfort and safety not only for the rider but also for the horse. A bad saddle will cause affliction to the horse and rider when no correct fit of the saddle is obtained in the back or withers of the horse generally due to an incorrect design or manufacture of the saddle. This discomfort leads to future affections of the horse and rider as well as to a handicap for any sport competition.
Any saddle generally has an upper part or surface designed for sitting the rider and a bottom part or surface open at an angle to accommodate to the back or withers of the animal. When a rider employ more than one horse, for example in several sportive competitions such as polo, the rider is provided with several saddles, generally one saddle per horse wherein each saddle is designed to fit the size of the animal where the saddle will be employed. Thus, each saddle has a design with a bottom part thereof having an opening forming an angle or predetermined angle that fits the size and anatomy of the horse's back.
In other situations, when only one horse is employed, it may happen that in short or long periods of time the anatomy of the horse had changed in an extent that the saddle usually employed for that horse becomes anatomically inappropriate. This is a frequent complication when the horse gets weight or looses weigh thus varying the angular profile of the back thereof, particularly the horse's withers. Since the saddle has been designed with a predetermined angle to fit the former horse's anatomy, the saddle will not yield its form to the anatomy changes and will not fit adequately.
Under the above circumstances many attempts have been made to design a saddle having a structure with the capacity of being adjusted in its dimensions, particularly in the angle of the bottom part of the saddle, to fit to the new characteristics of the animal anatomy. However, the solutions provided by the prior art have failed in that the same are complex, expensive, not reliable and they require of technical skillfulness and specialized workers to carry out the necessary adjustments.
Among the known solutions there are saddles having a structure or tree that is comprised of two or more hinged portions. These portions are hinged along a center line of the saddle, namely a line coinciding with the spine of the horse, and the parts can be angularly moved in order to open or close the parts relative to each other for altering the opening of the saddle to a desired angle according to the back shape of the horse. This regulating movement is achieved by means of a hinge and adjusting system that requires of strong, complex, bulky and heavy mechanisms including metal plates, bolts, levers and nuts. A system of this type is disclosed in GB 2254234 to the UK firm Thorowgood Limited.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0120683, to Swain, discloses a saddle tree including a progressive flex headplate capable for properly fitting a variety of different size horses, wherein the headplate is constructed of a plurality of flexible, and resilient overlapping layers secured together at a top of the headplate with the layers increasing in length from top to bottom wherein the assembly provides progressive flexure to fit horses of varying widths. As mentioned above comfort and proper fitting mostly exclusively depends on the as exact as possible design of the structure and bottom part of the saddle to copy the back of the equine. The saddle of Swain has a fixed bottom shape, this is that the bottom is open at a fixed angle and it is expected that the headplate yields upon the weight of the rider to accommodate to the horse's back. However, the fixed angle could fit size within an average size of the horse's back but will not fit properly in other dimensions, for example thin backs or wide backs. In addition, the top of the headplate is mostly rigid therefore while the distal ends of the layers may yield and flex under the rider's weight if the angle of the top part is not the correct one this part will be floating over the withers and back without offering a correct fitting.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0011167, to Belton, discloses a saddle tree including a front part comprising a bridging element with an internal surface for receiving an engagement part of a bearing part. Engagement part is configured to fit closely with receiving part and a plurality of different bearing parts can be provided, each of which having a generally similar engagement part but each differing insofar as the internal configuration, as it is indicated by reference 30 in FIG. 4. The internal configuration of each bearing member is designed to accommodate to the dimensions of the horse concerned. Thus the shape of the tree, and particularly the shape of the head plate or front part of the tree, is not modified to accommodate to the horse but only the internal configuration of the bearing part is designed to different dimensions, in other words, each different bearing part has different thicknesses which causes the head plate of the tree to have different thicknesses. This may cause a concentration of stress in the horse because the weight of the rider is not distributed uniformly all along the pads of the saddle but an important part of the weight is concentrated onto the horse through the thicker portions of the bearing part.
All the above known systems have not entered into a known market perhaps because the costs and complexities thereof have caused them to be no competitive. In addition, because of their complexity they require of special maintenance to guarantee that, when needed, it operates as expected and, if not well maintained, when one needs to use them it does not work properly. Even in addition there is one aspect that is of very much importance in any saddle but particularly in a saddle of high costs such as the saddles for competition and this aspect is the appearance and aesthetic of the saddle. The above regulation system makes difficult, if not impossible, to design and manufacture a high quality saddle with fine and delicate terminations and fittings.
Under the above circumstances it would be very convenient to have a new adjusting system and or adjustable saddle capable of being adjusted to fit varying horse sizes with no need of expertise or specialized personnel, and in an easy and quick manner, and also permitting to manufacture a saddle without alterations as to the design is concerned.